The most successful businesses are those with confidence in their ability to store, access and use data effectively. Rather than focusing on the nuts and bolts of storage, this view point looks at the data it holds and more importantly, what can be done with it.

This review looks at why small businesses need to stop being complacent about their networks and at what they can do to maintain their competitive edge as they follow the big boys down the route of increasing collaboration and other bandwidth-hungry applications likely to impact on network performance and availability.

In a speech at Chatham House in London, Almunia said he was aware of criticisms of a mooted YouTube policy on independent music and other issues, and could turn his attention to them at a later date.

"In general [the complainants] make three broad allegations," he said. "The use of Google's dominant position in search to push other services – eg Google+ and YouTube – and foreclose competitors; Google's terms and conditions for AdWords, its auction-based offering of advertising space, and AdSense, its offering of advertising services on publishers' webpages; the use by Google of images from third-party websites."

Almunia said that ‘preliminary' studies are taking place, but could not confirm an actual start. The commissioner added that the EC and its investigators would be watching Google in the future.

"We don't want to waste the Commission's resources on complaints that are not related to antitrust or are used as tools in commercial disputes," he said. "At present, we are conducting preliminary analyses and these will allow us to decide whether we will have to open new proceedings. Expert staff will look into these and possibly future allegations for quite some time. Google's compliance with EU competition law will be closely monitored."

V3 has asked Google for a response, but it had not replied by the time of publication. The firm could face any number of investigations, and Almunia said that it may be best to work on each complaint independently.

"The current investigation is probably drawing to an end," he added. "But I suspect this case is only the beginning of further EU antitrust enforcement in the digital economy."